Rick Ross was Erec's alter-ego during the first book. June told Erec that it was dangerous for anyone to know that he was there and said to go by the name Rick Ross. Although people like Bethany, Oscar, Jack, and Spartacus already knew his name was Rick Ross.
A problem he ran into with this was when adults were posing as kids during the contests and they used an identdetecor to see peoples real looks. This is when they revealed that Erec might have had his looks changed. Queen Posey saw his original looks and recognized him as Erec. She said nothing of the matter and allowed him to stay in the contests because he was still a kid, not an adult posing as a kid.